Here are a few films that all begin in the same way with the same creators shown right at the start. Wall-E
Monsters Inc
A Bugs Life
In these films the first words that that show up are 'Disney-pixar presents' this is how all the films are linked, the creators 'Walt Disney pictures' and 'pixar animation studios' are the first things to be shown because they are the most important things in the opening title sequence after them names all the opening titles move onto different things like the director, or the cast, or straight to the movie.
All the films are animated so this makes us assume that all the films are for children. The technical codes in these films are the constant jumbling of images at the beginning of each film, this is a form of entertainment for the younger children so this is obviously their target audience as the images are supposed to draw the attention and bring some humor to the opening of the film.
The symbolic codes in the title sequences are images that are related to the rest of the film this is for the consistency of the meaning of the film for example; monsters in monsters inc, bugs in a bugs life and machinery in wall-e.
The signs are just the colours they all are bright except for wall-e which show that wall-e is a different type of kids film than the other two, because the colours are bright this suggests that it is definitely a kids film and they hope that the kids would respond well to the colours as most children do and that lets them believe that the rest of the film will be better.
The cast is almost the same in each film showing a regular use of all the characters, but because it is animated so only the voices are needed.
From the opening scene of this film you can see that there is plenty of action, because right away you see gunfire which makes us assume that there will be this much action throughout the rest of the film.
The symbolic codes of this opening scene are clear to who everyone are, the fact that one of the groups of people have basic weapons, small guns and knives this shows that they are just the basic kind of pirates, you can tell that they are pirates because they are on a ship, however the other group of people have more advanced weaponry like laser sight this establishes that they know what they're doing and have clearly prepared for it. A key fact for the symbolic codes of the scene is the costumes that that everyone wears, for example the pirates wear rags and random clothes, where as the more prepared group all are wearing the same type of clothing (dark), this suggests that it is there uniform so they could be an advanced team hired by the government.
The technical scenes of this are based on the lighting and camera angles, the scene is dark for a reason so you can clearly see how professional the team are and how organized they are, the dark is also used so that you can see the effects of the special equipment used in the dark e.g laser sight. In this scene there are lots of close-ups to show the tension between the people and the plenty of medium long shots to show how groups are divided.
The key signifiers in this scene are the images of the guns which show war, this is because they are used for killing and other violence in the world.
From the opening sequence of the film you expect the film to be full of action and to keep me interested through the duration of the entire film.
You can see that the film is only suitable for people from at least 15 and up because you can see that there is violence and foul language, so you should only watch the film if you are into hardcore action films as this
looks like it would please those kind of fans easily.
Second Film-Forrest Gump
From the opening scene of this film it is hard to tell what genre the film is but you can assume that it is a drama.
The symbolic codes of the opening are the feather and the muddy shoes. For two minutes the camera follows a feather, the feather could show peace because of how it just floats around the city it lands by the feet of someone who could only be thought of as the main character, the fact that he picked the feather up and placed it in a book inside his briefcase shows that he is very sentimental. The characters shoes are muddy so this suggests that he has been moving around alot and this makes us think of the character as a traveler also because of the suitcase he is carrying around.
The technical codes of the opening are the camera angles it is always a close up on the feather to show how it ends up at the feet of the character as if it was meant to land there and there was a reason for it being there, at some points it is a birds eye view angle to show how far the feather has fallen.
The feather is also a signifier because it is the main focus point in the opening, the feather could symbolize freedom, another signifier could be the briefcase that the character placed the feather in it was being carried around with him there were clothes and other objects inside so that means that he is on the move and this can also be seen because how muddy his shoes are. These all show how the character has his own sense of freedom.
This sequence tells us that there could be a back story to the character because of the variety of the things inside the briefcase.
The older people are targeted in this film because its a drama.
Third film-Transformers
The genre of the film is action, sci-fi. The expectations of this film could be great if you are the sort of people who are sci-fi fanatics.
The technical codes in the film are just close ups on the cube that's floating through space, the shape of it tells us that it must of come from somewhere with an intelligent civilization that is why there is a narrative voice in the background that tells us how it got there so the opening scene is very informative on the plot of the story, so we know what is going on in the film.
The symbolic codes in the opening of the film are the cube and basically the rest of the space which let us know what genre the film is. The cube floats around space as if it is lost so we know that the film is based around that and trying to find it, the space that the cube is floating around in is large and vast which makes us think where the cube is going to end up and will it be found.
The signifier in the opening is the narrative voice which we can only assume is alien, it is a key signifier because it is needed at this point of the film to tell us what the rest of the film is going to be about and how these objects are involved in the film and whether they're important to the plot of the film or not.
The key audiences for this film are teenagers to adults.
From this poster you expect to see murder in the film, also from the strange looking person in the background you expect to see some strange unusual things and the poster tells us that there is some horror in the movie, however because the male character has a gun this suggests that there is a sense of action in the film.
The signifiers in the poster are the dark colours which signify the evil of the character in the background as he is the only character that is faded into the background, that suggests that he could spend alot of time in that area and it is where he does most or all of his hunting. The gun that the person is holding in the image signifies the limits a person is willing to go to survive.
In this image you can see a scared woman, also there is a disfigured character in the background that clearly shows a savage look so you can easily see that he is the dark character in the film.
The connotative level of the poster is action/ horror/ thriller these are the genres that you associate with the poster.
To summarize the poster tells us that this is a horror film about murder and psychopathic, disfigured people, and finally from the title 'wrong turn' it emphasises the fact that the regular people in the poster had no idea that they were about to run into what they did.
The genre of the movie is an action/sci-fi,
the codes and conventions of this genre make you think low key lighting for outer space activities, ground eye to show how dominant the alien species are and dutch tilt to show every thing is falling apart,
the signifier of this poster for transformers are that it shows aliens from out of this world, shown by the space above the humans.
The denotative level show aliens above the sunset, destruction behind the humans this suggests that that the aliens in power have caused the destruction, also the fact that the aliens heads are that large in in the picture show that they are much bigger than than the people. We see that the aliens are made of machinery which suggests that they're either from space or they could be man made.
The connotative level is destruction, the fact that there is other life out in the universe. The two aliens in the middle and left both have blue eyes symbolising good and kindness, whilst the alien on the right has red eyes symbolising sufferring and evil.
In that poster they are trying to tell the audience that there is other life out in the universe.
Hello my is Ryan Rheeston I am 16 years of age and I attend King Edwards Sheldon Heath (KESH) Academy, in this blog there will be my work for A-Level media. http://youtu.be/6pj8EGwT-l0
